Along with the air deflectors and radiator guard, I picked up a handlebar mount and helmet locks from ProjektD. As with the previous install, these were quick and easy.
The handlebar mount is an extension to the handlebar that gives you a place to mount your GPS, cell phone, camera, etc. You can see it in the picture sticking out towards the center from the right handlebar. The install for this one requires you to remove the bolt holding the right handlebar on and replace it with a longer one. Monkeying with the handlebars always makes me a little nervous, but I used the torque wrench and applied some non-permanent locktite so I should be all set.
The helmet locks easily installed under the luggage rack in the rear. Usually when Tyla and I stop somewhere, her helmet can fit in one of the bags but then I end up carrying my helmet around. This should be much more convenient.
All in all I’m very happy with my ProjektD accessories. It’s nice having things that are made specifically for your bike because the installation instructions can be very specific and everything fits. Now I need to stay off their website for a while or I’ll find more things that I want to order!
The next step in the home theater project was getting some sort of projector screen in place. I’ve been using a blank wall since we moved in, but this really isn’t a wonderful solution. There are a couple nail holes that screw up the picture, there is texture on the walls, and the paint isn’t pure white.
There are a number of articles online that describe various ways to create you own screen. After doing a lot of research, I decided to opt for a cheap pre-made screen instead. I purchased a 120” Elite Screens Sable Fixed Frame screen. One of the reasons this screen is less than one third of the cost of most screens is that it packs down into a reasonable size box for shipping. That translates to “some assembly required.”
It took me about 1.5 hours to get the screen put together, but I could probably cut that in half now that I know what I’m doing. You basically assemble the frame with a few screws and then methodically stretch the material with clips to provide a smooth flat surface. Tim and Chelsea came over to help mount it on to the wall and it took all four of us to get it on there.
I’m fairly pleased with the end result The black velvet border really sucks up any light from the projector that flows over the edge of the screen. That is important because it allows you to easily fill the whole screen with the picture. The screen does have some imperfections and a noticeable hot spot when the picture is a solid color. I'm playing around with a few ideas to minimize the appearance of the flaws, but for the price, this is still good deal.
Next up: mounting speakers on the wall and running speaker wire inside the walls.
The motorcycle has seen more action now that it means a faster trip to work. I take the interstate a lot and motorcycles get to use the carpool lane. That can shave 10-15 minutes off my 25-30 minute commute. When the temps are down around 40, even a quick blast on the interstate will eat through my winter riding gloves and freeze my fingers.
I finally caved and purchased some air deflectors from ProjektD. They’re a French company that makes aftermarket parts specifically for Concours14 bikes. Just the air deflectors ended up being $45 in international shipping so I decided to pile a few more goodies into the box. There were a few other items but I haven’t installed them yet so I’ll just mention the radiator guard. The front tire can kick up rocks and damage the radiator so this shield take the brunt of the assault. I opted for the black powder coated version with the Concours14 logo cut into the bottom.
Both accessories were quick to install. The radiator guard looks good and the air deflectors function quite well. I was worried that they wouldn’t be tall enough since I have risers installed in my handlebars. The air just skims the top of my gloves. I could attempt to bend the deflector brackets a little or cut a different piece of plexiglass, but I think it will work as is.
We have a row of arbor vitae trees in the backyard. They provide a nice visual block between us and the neighbors, but during the recent snow storm, they took quite a beating. The tops of the trees were bent down so far that I could hit them with a broom!
Thankfully they rebounded, but I thought I’d take a little action to hopefully help the situation next time. I purchased 100ft of 1 inch tree chainlock. That is now wrapped around all the trunks so that instead of individual trees, I now have one mass of trees that support each other.
While I was up there, I noticed that the previous owner had used some small rope to attempt the same thing on a couple of the trees. While those trees didn’t have quite as much trouble with the snow, the rope was really destroying the bark. In some places the tree had tried to grow around the rope and in others, the rope was rubbing the bark off. This plastic chain should do a better job and keep the trees healthy.
We’ll have to wait until the next snowstorm to see how well it works!
I received a weather station for Christmas, and the indoor and outdoor sensors both provide temperature and humidity levels. The temperature was fairly easy to calibrate since I have a number of other thermometers available and I was able to make sure it was at least in the right range. (No adjustments were needed.)
But how could I calibrate the humidity? I suppose I could just read a number off of a weather website, but I have no idea how much humidity can vary even in a small distance. I learned that with a simple science experiment, you can calibrate your humidity sensor.
- Find a large tupperware container and a smaller one that will fit inside it even when the lid is on the larger container.
- Fill the large container with some water and then dump in a bunch of salt. It doesn’t matter what the ratio is, just make sure the water is good and salty and that you have dissolved it all in the water. Also, it is best to use distilled water.
- Place your humidity sensor inside the small container and place that inside the large container.
- Put the lid on the large container sealing it all in one big package.
After a few hours at room temperature, the air inside the tupperware will reach 75% relative humidity. It’s accurate to within about 1% depending on your temperature, but that was plenty good enough for me.
As a member of the Data Explorer team and a fan of NASCAR, it was only natural (or not?) that I would combine the two. Besides, it’s fun to file bugs to our dev team who overwhelming choose soccer as their favorite sport. Even as I write this I can hear them saying, “It’s football, silly American.”
Last season, I created a Data Explorer document that pulled in track history, current season performance numbers, and figured out which five drivers I should pick for each race. While I didn’t win our league, I did finish in the top 5% in the country, at least among those who played on FoxSports.com.
Right now I have to manually change the URL to get the driver history the current week’s track, but I have some plans to make that more automatic. Once I get it cleaned up I’ll be sure to share it with everyone.
Don’t have an invite to our app yet? You can sign up to receive an invite or learn more on MSDN.
Very shortly after buying the projector, I built a simple shelf mount for it. It was easier and cheaper than hanging it from the ceiling and the Epson 8350 has awesome lens shift so I was still able to get the picture in the right spot. However, the cables were left dangling down the wall. I finally got around to fixing that this past weekend.
The key to the project was finding a good way to get power up to the projector. I didn’t just want to add an outlet up there, because I want the projector to run off the battery backup system in the AV rack. Enter the PowerBridge. It’s effectively two outlets connected by a piece of Romex. The special thing is that one outlet is male and the other is female. That means you can connect your extension cord to the outlet at the bottom and run it to whatever power source you want. There is also an opening for HDMI cables to come out. This is a great way to wall mount your TV without paying for an electrician! The kit had everything I needed except that I needed to buy more Romex because the included 6’ length wouldn’t reach up to the projector.
The other trick to this projector is mounted near the ceiling and this room has vaulted ceilings. That means that there is a ceiling joist between the projector and the floor. I had to cut an extra hole in the drywall just above the hole and drill through to feed the cables down to the floor.
The extra cut is the part that took the longest. I did a pumpkin cut on three sides, folded it back and then made my holes. After running the wires, I folded the drywall back in place and applied spackle and sanded until it matched nicely again. I sprayed on some orange peel wall texture and it’s almost as good as new. Obviously it needs a coat of paint to completely match, but I’ll do that later once the rest of the project is done.
Next up: mounting a projector screen.
In picture #3, the drywall wouldn’t quite stay flush so I applied a little glue and taped it in place until the glue dried. And in picture #4, yes, that’s a trash bag taped to the wall. I had it there to catch most of my sanding dust and any of the spackle that I might drop.
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